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Privatisation of Space

Mars One, a private, not-for-profit Netherlands company, plans to send four colonists on a one-way trip to Mars by 2025. The $6 billion trip - by their estimates - will be partly funded by a reality television program … if it ever gets off the ground (experts have serious hesitations). Richard Branson’s space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, is shrouded in a similar mix of grand dreams and legitimate doubt. Last year’s shuttle crash in the California desert was a reminder that recreational space travel is inherently risky … though Branson maintains it’s business as usual for his goal of allowing anyone with the financial means to visit space, to ‘experience the awe of seeing Earth from above’.

Throughout human history, fewer than 550 humans have been to space. Is all this about to change? What are the potential political, cultural and environmental impacts of space travel, funded and organised by corporations whose interests are commercially led? And could giant leaps into space result in smaller steps for mankind here on earth, when it comes to fixing the problem of climate change?

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Who?

Dianne McGrath is a shortlisted Mars One astronaut candidate, seeking to establish the first permanent human settlement on Mars. A sustainability consultant doing research at RMIT University on food waste, Dianne has completed multiple university degrees, and has had an extensive career in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

Angus Hervey is a science communicator, with a background in environmental economics and international political economy. He is the co-founder of Future Crunch, a forum for critical debate on how recent scientific and technological breakthroughs are affecting the way people live and work.

Dr Alice Gorman is an internationally recognised leader in the emerging field of space archaeology.

She is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University, an Adjunct Fellow at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University, and a member of the National Executive Council of the Space Industry Association of Australia.